November 4, 2021 RCSD Educator Blog

General Update

Change in substitute assignments through Frontline

Due to the increase in unfilled daily substitute positions across the District, we will make a small change in the way our substitute pool is notified of a teacher absence.

Starting on Monday, as soon as a teacher enters an absence in Frontline the need will immediately go out to all our subs. If a teacher has a preferred sub list, those folks will have a short window to accept the job before it goes to the entire pool. Our hope is that with an immediate notification, our amazing subs will be able to better plan their schedules, be more available to us and be more comfortable in knowing their assignments in advance.

There is nothing for you to do, the change will be made from Personnel Services in an effort to get more jobs filled more quickly throughout the District. However, you can help by entering your absences in Frontline as soon as you know you will be absent. The closer to the actual absence, the less likely you will get a sub assigned. While we are still very short on substitutes, we are hoping this updated process will help get needs filled.

Thank you for your patience, flexibility, and kindness as we continue to work on strategies to support our staff and students.

Ed Services Update

Attendance on the Report Card

Attendance will be included on report cards starting with the Trimester 1 report cards. Attendance will include both absences and tardies. A few notes regarding attendance:

-In elementary, accurate attendance will only appear in your “Homeroom” (this is the class that is not labeled with a subject and teachers assign their ABC standards). In your math and ELA classes, you will see an attendance line but they will always say 0 since attendance is only linked to that one class.

-In middle school, you will see attendance for all class periods meaning if a student has three tardies in period 1 and two tardies in period 2, you will see that information in each class.

-Attendance is only for active classes, meaning if a student moved classes mid-trimester, it would only show the attendance for the class they are getting a report card for. An example would be if a student had two absences in their 2nd-period math class but then moved to a different math class on September 15, only the absences from September 15 until the end of the trimester would be on the report card. All absences are still stored in PowerSchool.

-Because report cards only show attendance for active classes the following message will be included on the report card: Attendance records for dropped classes are not included on this report card.
Contact: Brandon Blom

Elementary PE Grades
A reminder PE teachers will assign PE grades for students in grades 1-5. Kindergarten students will not receive a PE grade. We are working on a way to communicate PE participation in Kinder for 2nd and 3rd Trimester but there will not be a comment for Trimester 1.
Contact: Brandon Blom

Elementary Assessments in Otus
We are looking for feedback on the use of the district-created elementary assessments in Otus. Please help guide our next steps with assessments in Otus by filling out the feedback form linked below. We appreciate your feedback!
Elementary-District Created Assessments in Otus Feedback Form
Contact: Megan Spears or Kelly Paese Yusim

Benchmark (ELA) Assessments in Otus
All Benchmark assessments for Units 1-5, grades 1-5 are now built and available in Otus!
Contact: Kelly Paese Yusim

Expressions (Math) Quick Quizzes in Otus
Units 1-3 Quick Quizzes, for all grades, are now built and available in Otus!
Contact: Megan Spears